Rishi Sunak is acting out of desperation with little advantage

The egregious decision by Rishi Sunak to push back net zero is just part one of a strategy – one made in desperation – to remain in power after the next election. An addendum to this strategy was also to bring into the public arena a list of binding rules to mitigate climate change which are pure fantasy. We were never going to be forced to have seven bins!

The next stage of this process, I fear, will be a promise to the electorate to have a referendum on net zero. Cynical, dangerous and totally ignorant of the problems we are facing with climate change. Oh, and look out for more “salting the shaft” comments around mythical stipulations for the poorest citizens, who in all reality the Tories care little to nothing about!

Robert Boston

Kent

Sunak’s U-turn on climate policies is allegedly to support hard-pressed families. But I ask the prime minister, what benefit do these policy changes bring to hard-pressed families now, or in the near future?

Over the last 18 months, renewable energy has kept costs to consumers significantly lower than if we were still fully dependent on fossil fuels. The government should be subsidising renewables, not earning money from them; the electricity generator levy is forecast to raise around £14.2bn between 2022-2028.

The reality is that the cost of generating renewable energy is coming down, electric cars are getting cheaper and charging infrastructure is improving. There is no short-term benefit to cutting climate policy. Sunak is condemning the children of the UK to breathe dirty air for longer and tying us to volatile fossil fuels even further into the future.

Phil Thompson

CEO of Balance Power

We suffer daily reports of chaos and failure from the government, and the latest disgraceful move from Rishi Sunak, postponing environmental protection measures, plunges us into further dismay.  And still, this terrible Tory government limps on and on. Zac Goldsmith is to be praised for calling for a general election.  In so doing he articulates what a large proportion of the country is crying out for.

In the meantime, I don’t know how Sunak can look his two young daughters in the eye.  Children of that age face being in the middle of the convulsions that lie ahead if we don’t tackle climate change with the utmost urgency and decisive, effective action.

Penny Little

Oxfordshire

I read John Rentoul’s recent column with interest, and if Tony Blair did influence this meeting with President Macron, who actually gives a Euro if it means a more proactive entente cordiale? Keir Starmer is between a rock and a Brexit hard place, but it must be common political knowledge that the British public have changed their minds on an industrial scale and would welcome a more affirmative rapprochement with the EU,  whatever form that took. The right-wing eurosceptics will never capitulate, but their clarion cry of “betrayal” is fast losing its purchase on the country and is becoming ever more hackneyed and out of touch.

Tony Blair has been around the political block for some considerable time and knows his brief. If he is proving to be a help to Starmer, then bring it on. Of course, some members of the public have strong views about this previous prime minister but now is the time to be persuasive and pragmatic and grasp every opportunity on offer to get Labour into power at the next election. Before this government implodes any further, causing considerable collateral damage to its citizens.

Judith A Daniels

Norfolk

I am neither a climate change “zealot”, nor am I wealthy. I expect some pain in the coming years as we seek to adjust our lives and behaviours in order to try to leave our grandchildren a world worth living in, and I am prepared to accept that for their sake.

What I cannot accept, and actually find offensive, is a spineless prime minister, who should be acting in a statesmanlike way, behaving like a small-town politician, with his horizon not measured in years, but in months, grubbing around changing crucial policies and weaselling words to seek short term electoral advantage.

Such irresponsibility proves Sunak and his party have lost the right to govern, if they had any self-respect they should depart before they do more damage. If there ever were time for a vote of no confidence, surely this is it!

Arthur Streatfield

Bath